1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a thermosensitive stereo recording method, and more particularly it relates to such thermal recording method which is capable of transmitting or recording stereo information with cancavo-convexities by using in combination a thermosensitive stereo recording material having a coating layer mainly composed of heat-expandable microspheres and a thermo-recording medium applied with a thermoplastic ink coating layer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Thermosensitive recording, which is a recording method devised to form the images by making use of the physical or chemical changes of a substance by means of thermal energy, has prevailed widely in the field of information science. For instance, it has been applied to output recording in electronic computing machines and signal receiving and recording by facsimiles, let alone application to copying of documents, owing to its various advantageous features such as no noise during recording and adoption of a color forming system which requires no development and fixing. Particularly, an amazing advancement has been seen lately in its adaptation to the printers, plotters, facsimiles and such in order to meet the request of the society in recent years for treatment of a huge volume of information as hard copies at the highest possible output performance.
A variety of methods have been devised for the preparation and application of thermosensitive material. There is known, for example, a thermosensitive material prepared by applying a color pigment or dye or powder of other like material such as carbon on a substrate and further applying thereon a white opaque thermofusible substance. There are also known a color-developing method by formation of a complex compound of an electron donor and an acceptor and a color recording method in which a crystal violet lactone and a phenolic acidic material are dispersed in a binder such as polyvinyl alcohol and the dispersion is heated to develop color.
However, any of the heretofore proposed thermosensitive recording means such as mentioned above is ineffective for recording of concavo-convex stereo information.
The present invention has for its object to provide a thermosensitive stereo recording method which is capable of recording concavo-convex stereo information, such as braille for the blind, by combined use of a thermal recording device such as a printer or facsimile which is capable of converting electric information into thermal information and an exposure device.
Other and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description.